Kelly calls Kane one of the greatest characters of all-time. He also calls his debut angle with the Undertaker was great but said it’s tragic what they have done with him since, referencing the Katie Vick angle and the unmasking.

He says that women’s wrestling can be used as a special attraction but it is no good. He says that Victoria and Trish Stratus are good but he does not want to see untrained girls wrestle and there are too many girls in the business and locker room and how you do not bring women to a wrestling show. He then talks about how all of the women on the active roster have done the “walk of shame” with the exception being Molly Holly. He does not give specifics as he does not want to get sued. He then talks about how Matt Hardy gets the ugliest “rats” in the business. He is also not a fan of how Lita’s face looks.

On the Brand Extension, Kelly said it was a bad idea from the start as Smackdown was always treated as the inferior product. This leads to Kelly saying that the new developmental program, Deep South, is going to fail (And it did) then talks about how the WWE is becoming WCW from the failed creative to the people in power.

When asked if Paul Heyman should be part of the current booking team, Kelly said that he should be working with Vince to create the show then in six months someone else should rotate in and take his place. He also said to keep Stephanie McMahon and HHH out of the mix.

Kelly is asked about WrestleMania 19 and he said it took place two weeks after he got fired and he was so down on the product that he did not watch the show.

On his release, Kelly was told that his position was being eliminated. He said his weight was ballooning up and they wanted someone who looked better in his role.

He talks about how the whole company changed once it went public. When that happened, it went corporate and their was layers of management added and he became unhappy.

Kelly is asked about wrestler deaths. He talks about how this generation of wrestler deaths coincided with steroid and painkiller abuse. Kelly then says that the Big Boss Man’s death shocked him then the interviewer said that the Honky Tonk man told him that he abused cocaine frequently. Kelly then talks about how for the longest time, he was worried about Shawn, Tom Prichard, William Regal, and Eddie Guerrero dying due to their substance abuse issues. (Eddie passed away less than two months after this was filmed)

Speaking about Tom Prichard, Kelly calls him a close friend and still remains in contact with him today. He said Prichard would take 4-5 somas at a time and drool in his seat while they were driving so Kelly would amuse himself by swerving the car on him. He said that Shane McMahon was the one who saved Prichard by setting him up to go to rehab. Kelly puts over the McMahon’s for going all out when they take care of their employees. He said that a limo went to pick up Prichard, who had no clue, to go to rehab and stayed for 15 weeks, instead of a 28 day program that most people go to and those programs have a higher relapse rate.

When asked about Jim Cornette getting fired, Kelly said that he needed to get fired because he was so burned out. Kelly then said that Cornette would get dicked around by the WWE as they would take guys from OVW on short notice after he planned out several weeks worth of TV in advance then never follow through on plans to let Cornette have guys to finish out their storylines.

He is asked about having to watch tapes of indy wrestlers as part of his job as a scout. Kelly talks about how he saw one of the worst promo tapes ever from a guy named Ralph Soto and how he cut the single worst promo he had ever heard. When asked what he looked for as a scout, he said that he wanted to see an 8×10 photo, a page-long bio about yourself, and how long you have worked and who trained you, along with your height and weight. He did not want to see a flurry of highspots or the indy promotions you have worked for because no one cares. Kelly said that one guy, who was deaf, would constantly call him through a tele-deaf phone operator and Kelly would have to tell him through this operator that he was terrible and would not be getting a deal.

Kelly said that he tried very hard to get Low Ki into the WWF but his size held him back and that his attitude was fine then. He talks about a match on Metal or Jakked against Christian that was excellent and could not believe that the WWE could not see what he and the crowd were seeing. Kelly said that he was proud that the got the Haas Brothers signed (For those of you who do not know, Charlie Haas had a brother Russ who he teamed with that passed away of a heart attack when they were both in developmental) when he took them to Jim Ross, knowing he would like them as they were from Oklahoma and collegiate wrestlers.

He talks some more of what he wants to see in a wrestler as a scout including a natural muscular physique and wide shoulders, because that means you have a greater chance to fill out and carry a bigger load. Kelly said you can see someone who is on steroids by watching them then mentions getting tapes of Rene Dupree when he was 16 or 17 years old and he was already juiced to the gills.

Kelly said that Da Hit Squad never listened to him when he told them what they needed to change in order to get signed by the WWE. The interviewer then asks Kelly if he heard the story about one of the Maximo’s (Spanish Announce Team) wiping a booger on the wall backstage during a WWE tryout match and JBL telling Vince about it and Kelly said he had not. Kelly is asked about Homicide and whether or not he has a shot at making it to the WWF. He said that he is one of those guys who the WWE would say needed to be three inches taller or have a better physique.

Now, Kelly is asked about how he was able to work for ECWA while he was employed by the WWE. Kelly said that he got a tremendous amount of heat for that. He said that he wanted to get involved with the in-ring product after being told by the WWE that he would never be able to do that in the WWE because he had never wrestled. Kelly said that he wanted the experience. He then talks about how he got in trouble because someone from the company saw a picture of him in “Pro Wrestling Illustrated” as a heel. Kelly then talks about how the people in the WWE who hate the wrestling business follow it like marks through Apter mags.

He talks about some of the independent promotions for a bit. Kelly said that Sheldon Goldberg of New England Championship Wrestling is a good creative mind but does not put the effort needed into making his promotion bigger.

Kelly discusses the independent scene now. He said that it started with the nostalgia runs of Tito Santana and Greg Valentine then switched to the Jersey guys like Steve Corino and Ace Darling before transitioning to what is the beginning of Ring of Honor and now back to the nostalgia with ex-ECW guys. Kelly said wrestling has to move forward instead of relying on the past.

On other guys in the Indy scene, Kelly said that Slyk Wagner Brown is a great pure athlete but never wants to sell for the babyface and wants to out-wrestle the face as a heel. He also blames everyone else for when he is at fault too and Kelly said that he does not appear to have the mentality to make it to the next level.

When asked about working for 3PW, Kelly said that it was doomed to fail as the Blue Meanie was too immature to run things and the Rockin’ Rebel, who was the booker, had his own agenda.

Kelly is asked about the Rob Feinstein incident. He first talks about how Rob and Gabe Sapolsky would come to ECWA shows then talked about how he didn’t pay attention to Ring of Honor until the company got pulled from him. When asked about whether or not he thinks Feinstein is a pedophile, Kelly said that he believes grown-ups can make mistakes then tells a story of how when he was 20 years old, his friends 18 year old sister introduced to him to her friend, who he learned afterwards turned out to be only 15 years old. He added that nothing happened between them but bad judgement like that can be used at times.

He goes into being a Born Again Christian and that can have a place in wrestling when asked about working for the Christian Wrestling Entertainment show and how young guys like AJ Styles, Jimmy Yang, Petey Williams, and Matt Sydal.

About the Mohammed Hassan firing, Kelly said that he should have sued the WWE and the UPN network for basically ending his career.

Kelly believes that Brock Lesnar will come back to the WWE. He tells him that he is a farm guy from Minnesota who has different ideals than most people. He tells a story of how during the filming of an interview for “Confidental,” the interviewer was complaining about the noise from the barn swallows. Lesnar asked the host if she wanted him to quiet the birds and when she said yes, Lesnar then took a stick and knocked down the nest then proceeded to pick up the birds and snap their necks. Kelly says that Lesnar is a lot smarter than people give him credit for too.

On the Matt Hardy/Lita/Edge love triangle, Kelly said that the WWE had a chance to make a great angle out of it but blew it then had a cage match with Hardy taking crazy bumps after no one cared.

When asked about Cena, Kelly said that they cut the heart out of his character as the writers got a hold of it and switched from having him rap to making poop jokes.

Kelly tells a story from 2001 when he was almost fired from the WWE on his birthday. Jim Ross called him up and said that business was down then told Kelly he was fired. Kelly then responded by telling Ross that he was going to come in and show them just how much work he did for the company and his job was saved.

He says that he has zero interest in going back to the WWE and adds that they would not want him either. Kelly said that he was perceived as an Indy guy that worked for the WWE rather than a WWE guy.

Final Thoughts: You cannot go wrong with this interview in my opinion. Although I do not necessarily agree with everything he says, Kelly seems honest and sheds a lot of insight into his time in the WWE. For fans of the Attitude Era, you get a lot of information here. I also enjoyed his thoughts of what he was wanting in a wrestler as a scout during this period.

The interview itself tries to follow a timeline but it gets interrupted and sometimes forgotten about. McCaffrey should have taken more command of things. That happened a lot in the beginning of the first disc but it wasn’t too bad here.

You can get the interview for just $10 by clicking on the link below, which is a great deal.